Interview 1

Who Did You Interview?

• Former fellow student (now studying Sustainable Resource Management - SRM)

Demographics That Might Provide Helpful Context for Their Responses

• Position: Student
• Age: 24

Key Findings from the Interview

• Since you switched your study field from Business Administration to SRM, I suggest that “Sustainability” has a strong impact on you. What were your major reasons for this choice?
• My interview partner felt like it is not enough to only learn about how to optimize revenue streams from a firm’s perspective. It is much more important to be aware of limited resources and be taught how to use them in a long-lasting and careful way. This will not only ensure that our generations can live on this planet with all its biodiversity, but also the generations to come. But what really stood out to her, is that she has the strong feeling that individual choices in fact matter. That’s why she is eager to understand how she can change her personal behavior - in literally all areas of life - for the better.

• That sounds reasonable, and I totally agree with you in those regards! Let’s start with the firm-level perspective. What do you believe, are the largest challenges in laying the foundation for a more sustainable future within Germany?
• Quite fast, it became clear that my interview partner nailed the problem in Germany to be an energy-related one. From an historical perspective, Germany is largely dependent on coal due to its enormous coal mining areas. Given this fact, Germany tended to follow a centralized approach, meaning it generated energy in a few conventional power plants and then transported the energy from there to the end-user. This, however, makes it more challenging to integrate a decentralized approach, that is necessary to integrate renewable energy sources in an ideal way. Combined with the circumstance, that Germany decided to opt out of nuclear power in a first place, the challenge becomes even greater. Overall, in her opinion, the energy mix in Germany is one of the key aspects to tackle for a more sustainable future. Because, in the end, lots of energy services such as E-Mobility, are only a “green” solution, if it is based on renewable energy.
• The good thing about the discussion, however, was that it concluded that German policymakers seem to be becoming aware of this problem and are now heading in the right direction by pushing for the implementation of more solar and wind energy systems.

Now that we have talked about some of the key challenges at a rather macro-level (primarily concerning the energy sector): what are you doing about it in your personal life?

• Given this question, she came up with quite a lot of interesting ideas! First, my interview partner stated that she lives in a rented apartment, where she chose an eco-electricity contract herself. Other than that, she found the largest lever to be her diet. Being a vegetarian (and to most parts vegan) person, she tries to substantially minimize her own carbon footprint. Concerning consumption, she started to buy second-hand articles, and tries to only buy things that are necessary. Concerning mobility, she shares her car (if at all) and uses frequently her bike and the rapid transit instead. Last, she tries to fly less by picking holiday destinations that lie within the European Union and are reachable via the VW bus of her parents.